BIDEN HIRES ALL-FEMALE COMMUNICATIONS TEAM
President-elect picks budget director, top economic adviser
W I L M I N G T O N, D e l .
President-elect Joe Biden has filled out his economics and communications teams, enlisting mostly women, including several of color, in a move that ref lected his campaign pledge to create an administration that presents a diverse face to America as it tackles twin pandemic and economic crises.
Biden is expected to nominate Neera Tanden, the chief executive of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, as director of the inf luential Office of Management and Budget, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the nominations freely. Tanden, whose parents emigrated from India, would be the first woman of color to oversee the agency.
The president-elect also will appoint Princeton University labor economist Cecilia Rouse as chair of the three-member Council of Economic Advisers, with economists Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey serving as the other members.
Rouse, who is African American, would be the first woman of color to chair the council, which plays a key role in advising the president on the economy, which has been ailing since the pandemic struck the country, throwing tens of millions out of work.
Biden earlier chose economist Janet Yellen to be his Treasury secretary. Jennifer Psaki, a veteran Democratic spokeswoman, will be Biden’s White House press secretary. Psaki, who did a stint as White House communications director under President Barack
Obama, will become the face of the new Biden administration.
She is one of seven women who will fill the upper ranks of his administration’s communications staff. It is the first time that all of the top aides tasked with speaking on behalf of an administration and shaping its message will be female.
Biden’s press team will be led by Kate Bedingfield, a longtime Biden aide who served as his campaign communications director and will hold the same title in his White House.
The communication team includes women with deep ties to Biden. Some worked on his presidential campaign, and others held top roles in the Obama administration.
Brian Deese, who served as a senior economic official during the Obama administration, will be named the director of the White House National Economic Council, according to people familiar with the decision. Deese has most recently served as a managing director at BlackRock, one of the world’s largest investment firms.
Rounding out the White House press team will be Karine Jean-Pierre, a campaign adviser and former top official with the liberal group MoveOn, as principal deputy press secretary. Pili Tobar, who worked for America’s Voice, a liberal immigration policy group, will become deputy White House communications director.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ communications director will be Ashley Etienne, a senior adviser to Biden’s campaign. Symone Sanders, a senior adviser to Biden’s campaign, will become the chief spokeswoman to Harris.
The head of the incoming East Wing communications team, who will work with Jill Biden, was also named: Elizabeth Alexander, a former campaign adviser who served as Biden’s spokeswoman when he was vice president. Before that, she was a federal prosecutor. Her title will be communications director for the first lady.